Is Google Plus a Viable Social Media Channel for B2B Marketers? – by Natascha Thomson

This blog series, co-authored with social media professional JC Giraldo, attempts to answer this question.

Background

What began as an email exchange between JC Giraldo and me, once again resulted in a blog series. This time on the viability of Google Plus for B2B marketers.

JC: “Where on G+ is all this supposed activity happening? I don’t see it in mynews feed.”

Natascha: “I think where it’s happening is in the communities and via Google Hangouts. That’s just my personal experience, we need to dig deeper.”

As we did for our popular series about The Use of Social Media around the Globe, JC and I reached out to our personal networks to find out about their experiences with G+ because the first rule of marketing is never to assume that your experience is representative.

(Why) Is there an “ever-increasing number of Google Plus fans,” as Google Co-FounderLarry Page put it?

According to Jeff Bullas, G+ is all about data gathering for Google. The more G+ users, the more data:

“To create a Google Plus account you need to tell them your age, location, email account and other data that reveals your likes and dislikes. We live in a digital data age that empowers us to express, publish, and share. That reveals who we are and Google can use that to increase revenue and improve user experience.”

In the interest of time, we have focused on facts #1, #5, and #6 from Jeff’s report:

Fact #1

Google Plus is catching up to Facebook in terms of membership. Why?

A Google Plus account is mandatory whenever you create a new Gmail account, pushing up the G+ account ownership stats.

Currently, Facebook still dominates at 70% of account ownership, but Google Plus is trying hard to catch up and gaining ground.

Fact #5:

Participation in social networks among older members of the population is increasing.

Social media is not just for millennials, as many assume, but permeates all age groups (Note: since parents joined Facebook, it’s become less attractive to their children, so they are moving on to other networks like Instagram and Snapchat.)

G+ has the highest attraction for the 35-44 age group, followed by the 55-64 age group. The first age group is probably made up of a high percentage of business professionals.

Fact #6.

Google Plus leads in terms of monthly visits when compared to Facebook and Twitter, but G+ appears to be remarkably inactive after account login. Why?

While monthly visits to G+ have risen above 1 million, this activity is (at least partly) generated by visits to other Google services like Gmail that are counted into the overall number.

While G+ has the most monthly visits, this does not seem to translate into activity by members.

Facebook users post more updates and are generally more active than G+ users (FB has more users overall but proportionally member activity is higher).

Twitter has a much smaller footprint than G+ in terms of accounts and monthly visits, but comes astoundingly close in terms of overall activity and tweet updates when compared to G+.

4. eMarketer

Daniel Marcec of eMarketer was quoted by US News: “If teens are into the ‘next big thing,’ it certainly isn’t Google Plus.“

Quite a harsh verdict.

Here some stats behind this statement:

Conclusion

In terms of numbers, Google Plus is catching up with Facebook.

In terms of real network activity, Google Plus lags behind, and how many accounts are active is unclear.

It would appear that G+ membership is currently overstated by Google, simply because G+ accounts “come with Gmail accounts.”

To shine more light on the real activity on Google Plus, where the hot spots are, and what active users get out of it, we have interviewed our network for the next blog in the series. Stay tuned.

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Natascha Thomson is the CEO of MarketingXLerator, a Social (Media) Business Consultancy. MarketingXLerator co-innovates with clients to create strategies that generate results through mutually beneficial relationships. Co-author of 42 Rules for B2B Social Media Marketing. Yogini. Yerdler. Motto: “Teach a man how to fish.”